I was thinking back on one of the puzzles in MI2. There is one puzzle that makes so little sense to me I just have to share it. I know we all have those but for this one there is absolutely no hint as I can see, you either have to already know what to do or you won't proceed. And I wonder if this was a error in game logic or if I'm missing something, even the hint book doesn't give a good explanation, it just says do x. I'm wondering as a gamer, why do x?

Here it is: In Monkey Island 2, you have to find the co-ordinates of where the ship 'Mad Monkey' sank and tell them to Kapsize Kate. The answer to these coordinates can be found in a book in the Phatt Island Library. Why that book? What in the game suggests that the player should check out that book? Only after checking out the book (a lengthy process as guybrush can only remember 4 titles at a time) do we as players discover it's a useful book, as opposed to 300 useless books. Was the player expected to solve this puzzle by checking out every book in the phatt island library?

Not knowing the title of the book would not be a big deal if we knew to look in the library in the first place. But there is nothing I know of to suggest the library is the place to go. What would make me happy is if someone here says, yeah there's this character, If you talk to them about the Mad Monkey, they say "I dunno, but the Phatt Island Library would probably have a book about that" or "I have a book about the Mad Monkey called x, it's not for sale though".

Just finally getting that one off my chest 20 years later. Anyone else got ones that just made you go: why?

Huz

05-13-2014 06:23 PM

I dunno! I don't remember how you find out that the Mad Monkey figurehead is a thing you want. Doesn't the dude in the antiques shop tell you about it, and tell you that it's on a shipwreck? Once you know that, it's not too obscure to go along to the library, repository of all knowledge (I think someone says that you can find out anything at the library or something, maybe Guybrush himself says it in conversation with the librarian), and look for a shipwreck related book. Being called Great Shipwrecks of Our Century, it immediately stands out if you know you're looking for the coordinates of a particular ship.

I certainly didn't have to check out every book, although looking through the entire card catalogue is still a bit annoying if you don't have the foresight to just look under S for Shipwrecks. It's probably there under W for Wrecks as well though, I can't be arsed checking World of MI's excellent library catalogue wiki thing to find out. Actually yeah I can, it would have taken me less time than it took to type out this paragraph. It's not under Wrecks but it is under Disasters (not the go-to place in the index, I wouldn't have thought) and also cross-referenced under Shipwrecks.